Teach Me to Cook
by Awesome Rapidash
Summary: Karen is a horrible cook as everyone in Mineral Town knows, and no one knows it more than the Gourmet. So what happens when she wants to win the Cooking festival? She seeks help to improve her culinary skills thats what! Read and find out what happens


_This little 'Friends of Mineral Town' story was inspired by something that I saw on __**The Scarlet Sky's**__ forum. It was a challenge fic, but someone had already done it. Still, I liked the idea of Ann spending a day trying to teach Karen how to cook. _

_This takes place a few days before the Cooking Festival. Hope ya like it! _

_**Disclaimer:**__ I don't now, nor will I ever own Harvest Moon. _

_**Teach Me to Cook**_

Ann loved to prepare all kinds of interesting culinary dishes. She loved to create and experiment with al manner of spices and flavors, creating unique and wonderfully tasty dishes. It was said by many that had known her mother that the redheaded girl had inherited he talents in the kitchen from her mother.

Her signature dishes were a favorite among the people who frequented her fathers Inn. Among her fans was a young blonde haired girl who happened to live at the town's local supermarket.

Yes, Karen loved to eat Ann's cooking there was no doubt about that. After all what went better with a nice glass of wine that good food.

Karen was troubled by something though, every year during the annual cooking festival she would try her best to prepare a tasty dish for everyone to enjoy. Yet every year the results were always the same, even before the Gourmet had even tasted her hard work he had a look of displeasure on his face, almost as if he'd judged her food without even trying it. Of course once he did taste her dish he usually was less that enthusiastic about it, something that greatly annoyed her.

"_This year will be different!"_ She resolved to herself. _"But how can I get better at cooking?" _She wondered curiously.

Getting up from her bed, Karen heads downstairs to help her mother with the family's shop. Once there she walks over to her mom, who is busy restocking the stores shelves.

"Hey mom, can I ask you a favor?" Karen asks hopefully.

"Sure sweetie, what's up? Sasha replies.

Karen looks intently at her mother. "Can you teach me how to cook?" She asks directly. "I wanna win at the Cooking Festival this year."

A momentary look of fear washes over the older woman's face as she flashes back to the last time she attempted to instruct her daughter in the fine art of food preparation. "Ahhh, you know what sweetie, I'd love to but since your father isn't feeling well I really don't have the time to do that." Sasha answers, trying not to disappoint her daughter.

Karen shakes her head. "That's OK mom, I understand. After all the last time I almost blew up the kitchen."

"Thanks for understanding." Sasha says in a relieved voice. "I never knew that baking powder could do so much damage."

The sound of the stores bell ringing interrupts their conversation. Both women look over at the auburn haired visitor who has just entered their store.

"_Maybe I could get Elli to help me."_ Karen muses softly as she approaches the brown haired nurse.

"Hi Elli, how are you today?" Karen asks is a pleasant tone. "How can I help you today?"

"Hey Karen, I'm fine thank you for asking." Elli replies cheerfully. "I'm here to pick up some things for the clinic." She adds as she removes a shopping list from the front pocket of her apron.

Karen takes the paper and begins to collect the items from the shelves. Elli follows her and takes the items and places them into a brown wicker basket. As they move about the isles of the small store Karen pauses.

"Hey El, can I ask you a favor?" She queries curiously.

"Sure Karen, what is it." The nurse responds.

"Can you teach me to cook?" The blonde haired girl asks softly. "I wanna enter the cooking festival and… well maybe win."

Her question causes the auburn haired nurse to have to try and stifle a laugh. After all, working at the clinic she'd seen first hand the effect that Karen's cooking had on its unlucky victims.

"Gee, I wish I could." Elli answers sadly. "But Tim's got me busy at the clinic and I really don't have the time to instruct you properly. Sorry, but maybe when I have some more free time we could try something."

"Hmm.., well I guess I can understand that." Karen replies plainly. "Thanks anyways." She adds before placing the final item into Elli's basket.

Karen walks with her friend over to the counter and chats idly with her while Sasha tallies up the bill. After paying Eli says good-by and heads back to the clinic. Karen looks up at the clock and notices that it's just before 4 in the afternoon.

"Hey mom, do you mind if I head over to the Inn for a little while?" She asks in a hopeful voice.

Sasha considers the question for a moment before giving her answer. "I guess so, since I don't think we'll have many more customers today." She answers. "Say 'hi' to Doug and Ann for me." She adds as she watches her daughter head for the door.

"I will mom, see you later!" Karen says just before pushing the door open and heading outside.

It takes her just under 10 minutes to walk from the store to Mineral Town's dinning and drinking establishment. Karen approaches he heavy wooden door and pushes it open. She walks inside and is greeted by the warm cozy atmosphere of the Inn. She walks over to the aged oak bar and takes a seat.

"Hello Karen." Doug says as he walks over to her. "What can I get for ya?" He asks curiously.

"I'll have some very berry wine please." She answers plainly. "Is Ann around today?" She asks hopefully.

"Yep, she's in the kitchen working on some muffins." He answers, placing a glass of sweet smelling purple liquor in front of her. "Do you want me to tell her that you're here?"

"If you would please, I'd appreciate it." Karen answers with a smile.

She takes a sip of the sweet tasting beverage and waits for Ann to appear from the back room.

"_If anyone can help me it's Ann."_ She muses hopefully before taking a slightly longer sip.

"Hi Karen, what's up?" Ann asks as she walks out from the back room and over to her friend.

"Hey Ann, I have a problem and I need your help with it." Karen answers directly.

"Oh, what kind of problem can I help you with?" The redheaded barmaid asks curiously.

"You know that I'm no good with boys and stuff like that." She adds as she refills Karen's now empty wine glass.

"It's nothing like that." Karen replies. "In fact it's something you're really good at."

Ann considers her friend's statement for a moment but is still unsure of what she wants.

"Well don't keep me in suspense, what is it?" Ann questions impatiently.

Karen looks directly at her friend. "I want you to teach me to cook."

"You want me to what?" Ann asks in a surprised tone. "Did I hear you right? You want to learn how to cook and you want me to teach you?"

"Yeah, you heard right." Karen says plainly. "I wanna enter the cooking festival and maybe even win. So, can you help me?"

Ann thinks about the question for a few moments. Thoughts of Karen's past dishes and the disastrous results they had fill her mind. _"Well, it might be fun to help her." _She says to herself.

"I'll help you learn to cook." Ann answers finally. Her answer is happily received by Karen who smiles broadly. "But know this, even though I'm helping you there is little chance that you will win at the festival."

"Why do you say that?" Karen asks curiously. "Don't you think I can learn fast enough?"

"No it's not that." Ann replies. "It's just that I'm also entering the contest and there's no way I'll let you beat me." She adds with a grin. "Come on let's start right now. I've got a chocolate cake to bake and you can help me make them."

"OK!" Karen replies happily and follows the redhead back in to the kitchen.

"First things first." Ann says as she leads her friend over to the sink. "We gotta wash our hands before we start."

"Yeah, I already knew that Ann, could we get to the actual cooking part?" Karen replies dramatically.

"Patience my dear Karen, you need to have some patience." Ann replies with a laugh.

Karen follows the redhead over to a table full of various ingredients and utensils. Her eye catches one particular utensil and she picks it up. She looks at it curiously, turning it over and around a couple of times before looking over at Ann.

"Hey Ann, what's this thing called?" She asks curiously. "It's pretty weird looking."

"That's called a whisk; you use it to whip eggs." Ann answers plainly. "We'll need it later." She adds plainly

"Can you hand me that large bowl please?" Ann asks, pointing to a large yellow colored mixing bowl.

"Yeah sure, no problem." She replies, handing Ann the ceramic bowl.

"Now can you get me the flour from the shelf over there?" Ann says, pointing to a shelf full of baking ingredients.

Karen walks over to the shelf and looks at the ingredients contained there. _"Ahhh…, which one of them is flour?" _She ponders silently.

Karen takes a moment to consider each of the bags before her. She then grabs the bag closest to her and heads back to where Ann is working.

"Please fill this cup up with flour." Ann instructs handing her a measuring cup.

Karen does as asked, and then hands the cup back to Ann, who empties it into her mixing bowl.

She finishes stirring the contents and pours the mix into a cake pan. She then places it into the oven to bake.

"Come on, it'll take 30 minutes to bake." Ann begins. "Let's take a break and grab something to drink."

"That sounds like a good idea." Karen says as they walk over to the bar. Karen sits down and Ann gets them each a glass of very berry wine.

Doug walks over and joins them. "How's she doing Ann?" The Innkeeper questions his daughter curiously.

"So far she's doing fine Dad." The redhead replies happily.

The girls sit at the bar and chit-chat until the sound of a bell ringing draws their attention.

"Come on Karen, our cake is done." Ann says as she motions the blonde haired girl to follow her.

They walk into the kitchen and head over to the stove. Ann looks inside and a strange look crosses her face.

"Huh, what's going on?" She questions curiously.

"What's wrong?" Karen asks her friend curiously. "Is something wrong with the cake?"

Ann carefully opens the oven door and removes a monster sized cake! It almost appears to be alive as Ann takes the freakish looking pastry and puts it on the counter.

"Ahhh… what the hell is that!" Karen asks as she points at the seething mass sitting on the counter.

"I.., I don't know." Ann replies in a scared voice. "What has happened to my cake?"

They cautiously approach the supposed cake and stand in front of it for a second. Karen grabs a fork and reaches out to poke the cake.

"No, don't do that!" Ann shouts.

She's a split second to late and Karen's fork penetrates the side of the cake. There is a loud popping sound and the next thing the girls know they're covered in sloppy cake batter.

"Ha, you look like a swamp monster." Karen laughs as she points to a batter coated Ann.

"Oh yeah, well you don't look much better." The redhead shoots back.

They both look at each other for a moment before busting out in laughter.

"What was that sound?" Doug asks as he walks into the kitchen.

He notices the mess all over and a look of anger crosses his face. "What the hell happened in here?" He asks the two angrily.

"Umm… we just had a little umm…, cake malfunction, yeah that's it a cake malfunction." Ann replies quickly. "Don't worry Dad we'll get it cleaned up in a jiffy."

Doug rubs his head wearily and walks out of the kitchen.

Ann and Karen work hard and get the kitchen cleaned up in less than an hour.

"I wonder what went wrong." Ann asks quizzically. "I added the ingredients just the way the cookbook say to."

Ann glances over to the table where she mixed the batter and something catches her eye. She walks over and picks up a bag and shows it to Karen.

"Is this the bag of flour you gave me?" She questions her friend curiously.

"Yep, that's the one." She replies in a positive voice.

"Well that explains it." Ann replies with a chuckle. "This is yeast not flour."

"What's the difference?" Karen questions curiously.

"Yeast makes the cake rise." Ann explains carefully. "That's why it blew up like it did."

"I'm really sorry Ann." Karen says in a sad tone. "I guess I messed things up pretty bad."

"Don't worry about it." Ann replies in an understanding voice.

"But your Dad was really mad." She replies sorrowfully. "I bet you're gonna reconsider trying to help me learn to cook."

"Nah, accidents happen." Ann said reassuringly. "We'll just have to try again."

"Thanks Ann, you're a great friend." Karen replies happily.

Together the two of them make another cake and this time Ann makes sure that they use the correct ingredients.

"See you can do it." Ann says enthusiastically.

"But you helped me so much with it, how can I do this for the cooking festival?" Karen replies plainly.

"Actually I was thinking about that and I have an idea." Ann replies positively.

"Really, what's that?" Karen questions intently.

Ann walks over to a refrigerator and removes 4 eggs. "Follow me and I'll show you."

Karen follows curiously as Ann walks out of the Inn and heads down the road towards the other end of town.

"Where are we going?" Karen asks as they continue down the brick path.

"We're going to the hot spring." Ann responds. "I'm gonna show you how to make a spa boiled egg."

"Oh OK." Karen says happily.

The girls arrive at the spring 10 minutes later. Ann demonstrates the way to cook the egg using the boiling water of the hot spring and Karen watches intently. Finally Karen gets the chance to cook an egg, and after messing the first one up she succeeds with the second egg, much to her delight.

Two days later at the cooking festival Karen presents her spa boiled eggs in the challenge and even though the Gourmet wasn't overly excited about her dish, he didn't dislike it either, giving her a smile after tasting her eggs.

Karen smiled proudly as the portly man walked away from her stand. Even if her dish didn't win the festival's award, the Gourmet's smile was a victory for her!

At the end of the day Karen watched happily as the festivals top honor was awarded to her redheaded friend. After all Ann was the best cook in Mineral Town so she deserved to win.

Karen made it a point to congratulate her friend and to thank her for teaching her how to cook, well at least how to boil and egg anyway!

_So what do you think? I liked how this turned out and I hope that everyone else does too! As always, I live for reviews so please take a moment and give me some feedback. Thanks! _


End file.
